Hi, this is my scen about how the Despotate of Epiros
became the Empire of Thessalonike, controlling most of the southern
balcans, northern Greece, and eastern Thrace. Historically the
Empire of Thessalonike was crushed by the Bulgarians at the battle
of Klokonitsa, after almost 30 years of existence.

You are strongly advised to either play as 

-The empire of Thessalonike
or 
-The Empire of Bulgaria

Serbia and The Minor Latin Kingdoms are also fun
Nicaea (byzantine empire) is fun, and has greek fire ;)

not for play:

-The Empire of Constantinople
-Veneto


Some other notes:

this version in reality still is a beta, although a kind of omega-beta :)
but the plan is to try to make the empire of Thessalonike in the years it 
had to exist, and then just keep on playing, since the events giving
special units are meant to keep the situation more or less balanced.

some of the units have greek names, so this is a small glossary, if you
are interested:

ygro pyr: greek fire (literally it means: liquid fire)
peltastai: stone, or other small missile, throwers
doryphoroi: pikemen, or pike-holders/bearers literally
stratiotai: soldiers
phoideratoi: i dont know what it means, but it is a real name of a byzantine
mounted unit of the age :)
kataskopos: spy
tektones: builders, masons.
strategos: general! :)
mikre galera: small gallery
megale galera: yeah, you guessed it, great galley :)
autonomos: autonomous!
misthophoroi: merceneries, literary means: bearing wages
staurophoroi: crusaders! literary meaning: bearing the cross
epilect: chosen, although i think that the word is used in english too

special rules:
-if a bulg. epilect is killed a minor revolt is triggered
-if a serb horseman is killed a minor revolt is triggered
-if a serb knight (mercenery unit) is killed then relations between thessalonike
and serbia deteriorate
-if a strategos is killed you lose 200 from your treasury
-if a latin king is killed a revolt is triggered
-if a Thessalonike Phoideratoi is killed there is a minor revolt in Macedonia
-if you are playing as the empire of nicaea (byzantine empire) expect revolts
when nicaean swordsmen, or ottoman auxils are killed.
 
note: some of the events were picked up from a site by Boise university
(well one finds strange sites in the internet) they were very nicely written!

Special thanks to:

Mathias H. Koster. His DAROE scenario was my main inspiration :)

Heresson. His Fading Lights was both an inspiration, and the source of the city placement,
also the map is his map, increased in size, and with minor changes in Morea
and the Chalkidike peninsula.

Many others in the Apolyton forums.


Some info about me

I am a philosophy BA degree holder, 24 years old at the time of writing this,
and with a keen interest in literature, and and even keener interest in 
historiology. However i like having fun as well :) My interesest regarding the Byzantine empire isnt very
great, but i wanted to make a scenario about that period which was fun,
without having a bigger agenda on history. Besides, playing civ2 scenarios
in my view should be mostly about fun, and not so much about history,
although i am sure that if you play this scen a lot you will end up
memorizing the names of the people mentioned in the events :)

you can always post your comments in the apolyton thread, while it
is still active,

thank you in advance,

Kyriakos Chalkopoulos

Thessalonike, March 2004